1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to antitank-antipersonnel weapons and more particularly to antitank-antipersonnel weapons that are synergistic combinations of lens-compromising agents, radar-compromising agents, and human irritants.
2. Prior Art
The primary weapons of this invention are derived from hand grenades and land mines, primitive versions of which have been used as instruments of war for centuries. These primitive weapons and their more modern counterparts are described in some detail in Weapons, The Diagram Group, St. Martin's Press, New York 1980.
The grenades, mines, projectiles, bombs, etc. that are modified to become the weapons of this invention, as well as the tank optics, radars, and protective masks that will be compromised by the weapons of this invention are described, for example, in Jane's Infantry Weapons 1987-88, Jane's Weapons Systems 1987-88, Jane's Military Vehicles and Ground Support Equipment 1984, and Jane's Armour and Artillery 1981-82.
The human irritants needed to practice this invention and known from prior use range from the relatively benign capsicum derivatives found in personal protection sprays such as "Halt!", through the incapacitating agents chloracetophenome (CN), O-chlorobenzolmalonitrile (CS), and diphenylaminochloroarsine (DM), to the World War I gases mustard and phosgene. These human irritants, along with the older "germ warfare" dusts and aerosols, have been described in detail in medical journals, as have their short and long term physiological effects, and where known, their antidotes.
The lens-compromising agents needed to practice this invention are well known products that are used for other purposes. One such product is conducting paint that can also serve in the present invention as one kind of radar-compromising agent. Another kind of radar-compromising agent that may be needed to practice this inventin is a radar absorbing material such as that disclosed in Stander, U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,210.
Finally, a tank periscope lens purging arrangement disclosed by Durer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,326, and in which a stream of purging air is blown over the external lens of the periscope, is an example of one kind of potential countermeasure that must be addressed if the weapons of this invention are to be effective.